Putting Destiny on Hold
by Last Haven
Summary: August has many regrets, but this is one time that he's willing to take the risk.


August knows he made a mistake, he can look at himself and admit it now. Emma deserved more than a little scared boy to guide her, but he was her best shot and he blew it. Still, hope finds an unlikely helper in time and he finally convinces himself to look for her. It takes nearly a decade and a half to get him to start looking for Emma. She isn't as easy to find he hoped; she is nearly as restless himself, rarely staying in any place long. Dogging her steps made him feel worse—he should have been there to watch over instead of leaving her to be bounced home to home.

It takes years to finally close in on her. During that time, he learns what he can of her character; she is brash and angry, but resourceful and smart. The more he learns the more his hope that she could save his father and her own family grows like a flame into a bonfire.

But then she meets someone, a man, her partner in crime. He couldn't ironically describe them thick as thieves because that's what they were. Shoplifting, squatting, pool and card sharking, they have quite the rap sheet behind them.

No good come of this—they only seem to enable each other. Outside of Portland, he decides that he would have to separate them. It isn't an easy decision—they are attached at the hip for nearly a year, which is longer than August himself could claim for any relationship. It would be cruel, but they are only dragging each other down. _It'll be best for everyone,_ he tells himself as he rides into town.

His plans, however, don't work—he misses his chance to talk to Neal. Bad habits catch him in a bar, and by the time he shakes himself loose he finds they were already half way to Canada.

It takes nearly another year to catch up with them.

What he finds stops him dead in his tracks.

He spots them outside a Vancouver convenience store on pure chance; they were harder to track since they changed their names. Just as he pulls up to ask for directions to the nearest diner, they exit the store. Seeing Emma nearly bowls him over—she is barely what he expected. She doesn't look angry anymore; instead she is smiling and nearly glowing with cheer like the sun. The man isn't what he expects Neal to be either. What he really doesn't expect is the gurgling baby in Neal's arms, squawking with joy as Emma reaches up to tickle his stomach.

For a moment, he thinks his heart stopped; perhaps he gasped because Neal looks up at him. Emma looks up as well, smile still pinned onto her face as a question starts to brew behind her eyes.

August forces himself to grin. "Sorry—didn't mean to intrude." He scrambles for some sort of excuse. "Would either of you two know a good place for a meal?"

"The Templeton's not bad," Emma answers, pointing over her shoulder vaguely. "It's over on Granville."

He nods, glancing between the two of them before he starts his engine back up and drives off.

Sitting in the diner, he nurses a drink that he poured out of his flask in broad afternoon daylight, ignoring the disapproving glares the busybodies around him shoot at him. He doesn't care; he broods, staring at his drink.

They're a family—well, they could be babysitting for all he knows, but he's seen the love in their eyes for that kid. His father used to look at him like that.

He feels sick to his stomach.

When he decides to hang around, silently watching them as discreetly as he can manage, his suspicions only solidify. It is their kid and they look practically delirious in love with each other and their son.

 _I can't_ , August thinks as he downs a shot. _I can't tear a family up; I can't let that kid lose his parents._

 _There is still ten years_ , he decides in the end. _There has to be some way I can get her over to Maine in ten years._

He sets his glass down. Ten years is a long time; miracles can happen in far less. Finally, he smiles.

 _Ten years, Emma, I can give you that._

Quietly, he rides back out of Vancouver; Emma and Neal—who had noticed they were being watched—leave not too long after. Tallahassee has waited long enough. Emma beams when they enter the city. Far away, August is smiling as well as he makes his way back to Thailand.

Storybrooke, however, can wait a little longer.


End file.
